Few drugs have been around for as long or have caused as much trouble and problems as heroin. Indeed one of the most ancient and deadly substances, this drug has proven time and time again to be a deadly substance that seems only to become more familiar.

Opiate Addicts Switching to Heroin

During the 1990s, the nation experienced a significant slump in heroin popularity and general interest. This downturn was good news at first until it all changed during the turn of the century. Between 2001 and 2005 the production, distribution, proliferation, and sale of opiate prescription drugs increased by more than three-hundred percent. Suddenly there were far more opiate drugs in the nation, and a lot of Americans suddenly had access to highly addictive drugs that previously had been unavailable.

This resulted in a significant spike in Americans’ use and abuse of opiate-based drugs and substances. Heroin was one of those drugs. Because this drug is so addictive and because opiate pain relievers are so addictive, Americans started going back and forth between the two and taking one after the other. Opiate pain relievers are generally speaking more expensive and can be harder to find, hence the skyrocketing heroin abuse statistics starting at around 2005. Why? When addicts couldn’t get pills, they would just switch to heroin.

A Far-Reaching Epidemic

Opiate addiction is now the most concerning addiction problem in the nation after alcohol. Because people can go back and forth between opiate pain reliever pills and heroin, it is difficult to try and help get them off of their habit. A lot of people go to rehab when they can’t get any more of their drug, but people who are addicted to opiates can almost always get something that has opiates in it.

There is currently an opiate epidemic, and it has become incredibly far-reaching, especially considering it was once a taboo drug. To make matters even worse, it is difficult to kick the habit, so difficult to the point that it is critical to enter a detox center and rehab program that understands the unique issues that it presents in recovering.

For those who are addicted to heroin, there needs to be an absolute sense of urgency in dealing with this addiction and the life and death consequences that abound it if left untreated. Because this addiction is so severe, we have put together a program that addresses it and eradicates it with efficiency and zeal. We are experts at handling opiate addiction, and this is where most of our clients (especially the young ones) come from.

Opiate addiction now affects millions of Americans whereas before the 1990s barely two-hundred-thousand were addicted. We help a lot of heroin addicts obtain a real life of sobriety and recovery, and we are very skilled in creating this desirable state of true sobriety for anyone who desires it. We are here to help, and that is our entire, main mission.

The Details on a Very Severe Problem

We can talk all day long about the significance and the horrors of heroin addiction, but the best way to showcase the problem is with the statistics. Because heroin abuse and addiction has spiked so much in recent years, organizations like the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have all worked together to try and categorize and adequately assess and evaluate the problem. It has not been an easy project, but the below information on substance abuse issues is very concerning.

Listed below is a fair amount of factual information regarding the United States’ current heroin epidemic:

Heroin abuse is on the rise since the turn of the century, after many years of being on its way out. “Why?” we ask. Experts say that the increase in heroin use is inevitably linked to prescription opioid abuse. Young and old people alike often become addicted to pain pills and then progress to this drug, (which provides the same euphoric high as pain pills), when pills are hard to come by, too expensive, or are just no longer as thrilling to the user.

Recent studies have been done to determine the most efficient way to prevent drug abuse amongst young adults. Heroin is a huge problem with the youth of the nation. The key is in education and in informing young adults and children about the harmful effects of drug abuse. Studies show that children and young adults who learn about the risk of drugs or alcohol at a young age are in fact fifty percent less likely to use drugs than those who are not adequately enlightened about the dangers of substance abuse, especially when it comes to heroin abuse specifically.

Because so many Americans are now abusing pain reliever drugs, there has also been a severe spike in heroin abuse statistics in the United States as well. From the year 2001 to the year 2013, there was a five-fold increase in the total number of deaths from these overdoses. The heroin problem was practically eradicated in the United States at the turn of the century. Following a three-hundred percent increase in the production of opiate pain relievers between 2001 and 2005 however, heroin abuse statistics, including overdose deaths, has now soared to unprecedented levels.

Heroin abuse has been on the rise ever since opiate pain medication became immensely popular amongst Americans. The last several years have seen tremendous increases in heroin abuse amongst young adults in particular. There has been an eighty percent increase in the first-time use of heroin among 12 to 17-year-olds since the year 2002.

Heroin abuse is on the rise again in the United States. After lying almost completely dormant for over two decades, heroin abuse has skyrocketed in the U.S. in tandem with increases in opiate pain reliever abuse.

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Addressing and Eradicating Heroin Addiction for Good

Thankfully, there is a way to beat heroin addiction once and for all. It involves going through an inpatient drug and alcohol addiction treatment center. Ultimately that is what is most successful. Only inpatient rehab centers will do because only inpatient facilities offer a sincere enough and a committed enough program that will do the trick with erasing addiction for good.

Thankfully, we offer such services. We specialize in heroin addiction. Our medical detoxification unit is perfect for detoxing off of this substance, and our counseling and behavioral skills take heroin addiction and strip it down to the underlying issues that cause it.

The thing is, no one just wakes up in the morning and thinks, “I’ll go out and try some heroin today. That sounds like a good idea.” It just doesn’t work that way. No, there are lots of serious and very concerning, underlying reasons why someone goes about using and abusing this drug and those now more than ever need to be addressed.